Alex Trebek’s final Jeopardy! episode to air on Christmas Day with speech that ‘moved crew to tears’

Alex Trebek’s final Jeopardy! episode will include a touching speech about togetherness, which apparently moved his production crew to tears.  

The beloved TV host died on Sunday 8 November, aged 80. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer, but continued recording in the final weeks of his life, Sony Pictures said.  

His final episode will be aired on Christmas Day.

Mike Richards, the show’s executive producer, told CNN that the team didn’t know the episodes they were filming would be Trebek’s last.  

“He was in pain and we knew it,” he said of the speech that moved the crew to tears. “He’d had surgery. I couldn’t believe he was already back from the surgery that he’d had just two weeks before that. I had chills the entire tape day.

“That first show of that final week, which is unbelievably the week of Christmas, he gives a speech talking about togetherness, how important family is, and it will resonate even more now.

“It was so beautiful that we were all emotional, we were all in tears and we all started clapping and it almost distracted him because he was going, ‘OK, now let’s play Jeopardy!’”

Trebek spoke candidly about his illness after being diagnosed in March 2019, telling fans he wanted to be “open and transparent”.  

Richards said that despite Trebek going through chemotherapy while working, he remained “at the top of his game”.

The Ontario-born presenter hosted more than 8,200 Jeopardy! episodes over 37 seasons, and set a Guinness World Record for hosting the most episodes of a gameshow.  

“As a professional, the fact that he kept pushing and that he recorded what would now be his final episodes less than two weeks ago, gives you an idea of just how much he believed in the show, how much he cared for it,” Richards said.